Judi Chamberlin, 65, a disability rights advocate and author
of the groundbreaking book "On Our Own: Patient-Controlled
Alternatives to the Mental Health System," (1978) died Jan.
16 at her home in Arlington, Mass., of chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease.

In her early 20s, Ms. Chamberlin was hospitalized in a state
institution and was declared schizophrenic. She soon
discovered that as a psychiatric patient, she had no legal
rights. This realization was the catalyst for her career as
an activist, which began in the early 1970s when she
co-founded the Mental Patients Liberation Front.

Throughout her life, Ms. Chamberlin
worked to create client-run, non-coercive alternatives to
traditional mental health systems and to end rights
violations and discrimination against people with
psychiatric disabilities.

She co-founded the Ruby Rogers Advocacy and Drop-In Center,
a self-help facility run by and for people who have received
psychiatric services, and the National Empowerment Center, a
technical assistance center dedicated to promoting recovery
and community integration.

In 1992, Ms. Chamberlin received the
President's Distinguished Service Award from the President's
Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities.

She was the author of the seminal
National Council on Disability report "From Privileges to
Rights: People Labeled With Psychiatric Disabilities Speak
for Themselves" (2000).

Toward the end of her life, she became an advocate for the
hospice model of care and the right to die at home, which
she chronicled in the blog "Life as a Hospice Patient."

The National Coalition of Mental
Health Consumer/Survivor Organizations (NCMHCSO) mourns the
death of Judi Chamberlin, an internationally renowned
activist in the mental health consumer/survivor movement and
author of the groundbreaking book "On Our Own:
Patient-Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System"
(1978). Chamberlin, 65, died at home on January 16 after a
long illness.

Since the early 1970s, Chamberlin
worked tirelessly to create peer-run, non-coercive
alternatives to traditional mental health systems, and to
end rights violations and discrimination against people with
psychiatric disabilities. She founded a number of early
consumer-run organizations and had a profound impact on
furthering the recovery and wellness of people facing
psychiatric challenges around the world. In 1992, Chamberlin
received the Distinguished Service Award of the President of
the United States. She authored the seminal National Council
on Disability report "From Privileges to Rights: People
Labeled with Psychiatric Disabilities Speak for Themselves"
(2000). She chronicled the last months of her life in a
blog, "Life as a Hospice Patient"
http://judi-lifeasahospicepatient.blogspot.com.

In the wake of Chamberlin's death,
many spoke of her legacy.

Said former first lady Rosalynn
Carter, "I was deeply saddened to hear about the passing of
Judi Chamberlin. Since 1978 I have admired her
groundbreaking legal and human rights advocacy work and the
key role she played on the Carter Commission on Mental
Health. She worked fearlessly to ensure that the voice of
consumers was heard from the clinical level to the public
policy arena. Both as a leading advocate and an inspiring
individual, she will be sorely missed."

"Judi was the wind beneath the wings
of our movement here and around the world," said Daniel
Fisher, M.D., Ph.D., a founder of the NCMHCSO. "Her dream
and courage will live on in our hearts."

"In the nearly 30 years I have known
Judi, I have been deeply inspired by her passionate efforts
on behalf of individuals with psychiatric histories," said
Joseph Rogers, executive director of the federally funded
National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse,
which serves the consumer movement.

"Judi Chamberlin's life and work
gave people in the mental health field an example of how
people [with psychiatric disabilities] can have full and
rich lives in their communities," said Richard Frank, Ph.D.,
deputy assistant secretary, Office of Disability, Aging, and
Long-Term Care Policy, Office of the Assistant Secretary for
Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services.

The National Coalition of Mental
Health Consumer/Survivor Organizations
http://www.ncmhcso.org works to ensure that
consumer/survivors have a major voice in the development and
implementation of health care, mental health, and social
policies at the state and national levels, empowering people
to recover and lead a full life in the community.